Mychal Fallon Judge, OFM (born Robert Emmett Judge; May 11, 1933 – September 11, 2001), was an American Franciscan friar and Catholic priest who served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. While serving in that capacity, he was killed, becoming the first certified fatality of the September 11 attacks.
Early life Judge was born Robert Emmett Judge on May 11, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of immigrants from County Leitrim, Ireland, and the firstborn of fraternal twins. His twin sister, Dympna, was born two days later. Judge was baptized in St. Paul's Church in Brooklyn on June 4. The twins, and their older sister Erin, grew up during the Great Depression.
From the ages of three to six, he watched his father suffer and die from mastoiditis, a slow and painful illness of the skull and inner ear. To earn income after his father's death, Judge shined shoes at New York Penn Station and visited St. Francis of Assisi Church across the street. Seeing the Franciscan friars there, he later said, "I realized that I didn't care for material things.... I knew then that I wanted to be a friar."
Career After spending his freshman year at the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, where he studied under the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, in 1948, at the age of 15, Judge began the formation process to enter the Order of Friars Minor. He transferred to St. Joseph's Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, New York, the minor seminary of the Holy Name province of the Order. After graduation, he enrolled at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York. In 1954 he was admitted to the novitiate of the Province in Paterson, New Jersey. After completing that year of formation, he received the religious habit and professed his first vows as a member of the Order. At that time, he was given the religious name of Fallon Michael. He later dropped 'Fallon' and changed 'Michael' to Mychal. According to Queer There and Everywhere by Sarah Prager, Mychal changed his name to "differentiate himself from all the other 'Father Michaels.'" He resumed his college studies at St. Bonaventure University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1957. He professed his solemn vows as a full member of the Order in 1958. Following this, he did his theological studies at Holy Name College Seminary in Washington, D.C. Upon completing these studies in 1961, he was ordained a priest.
After his ordination, Judge was assigned to the Shrine of St. Anthony in Boston, Massachusetts. Following his assignment there, he served in various parishes served by the Franciscans: St. Joseph Parish in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Sacred Heart Parish in Rochelle Park, New Jersey, Holy Cross Parish in the Bronx and St. Joseph Parish in West Milford, New Jersey. For three years he served as assistant to the President of Siena College, operated by the Franciscans in Loudonville, New York. In 1986 he was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Church in Manhattan, where he had first come to know the friars. He lived and worked there until his death.
Around 1971, Judge developed alcoholism, although he never showed obvious signs. In 1978, with the support of Alcoholics Anonymous, he became sober and continued to share his personal story of alcoholism to help others facing addiction.
In 1992, Judge was appointed a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. As chaplain, he offered encouragement and prayers at fires, rescues, and hospitals, and counseled firemen and their families, often working 16-hour days. "His whole ministry was about love. Mychal loved the fire department and they loved him." Judge was a member of AFSCME Local 299 (District Council 37).
Judge was also well known in the city for ministering to the homeless, the hungry, recovering alcoholics, people with AIDS, the sick, injured, and grieving, immigrants, gays and lesbians, and those alienated by society. Judge once gave the winter coat off his back to a homeless woman in the street, later saying, "She needed it more than me." When he anointed a man who was dying of AIDS, the man asked him, "Do you think God hates me?" Judge picked him up, kissed him, and silently rocked him in his arms.Holsten, Glenn (Director). Saint of 9/11 (2006), Virgil Films & Entertainment. Judge worked with St. Clare's Hospital, which opened the city's first AIDS ward, in order to start an active AIDS ministry. He visited hospitals and AIDS patients and their families, presided over many funerals, and counseled other Catholics such as Brendan Fay and John J. McNeill. Judge continued to be an advocate for gay rights throughout the rest of his life, marching in pride parades and attending other gay events.
Even before his death, many considered Judge to be a living saint for his extraordinary works of charity and his deep spirituality. While praying, he would sometimes "become so lost in God, as if lost in a trance, that he'd be shocked to find several hours had passed." Judge's spiritual director, the late Jesuit McNeill, observed that Judge achieved an "extraordinary degree of union with the divine. We knew we were dealing with someone directly in line with God."
September 11 attacks
On September 11, 2001, after learning that the World Trade Center had been hit by the first of two jetliners, Judge rushed to the site. He was met by Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City, who asked him to pray for the city and its victims. Judge prayed over bodies lying on the streets, then entered the lobby of the North Tower, where an emergency command post had been organized. There he continued offering aid and prayers for the rescuers, the injured, and the dead.
When the neighboring South Tower collapsed at 9:59a.m., debris flew through the North Tower lobby, killing many inside. Judge died at this moment, struck and killed by the debris. According to a later interview with 1st Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer, it was initially believed that he had suffered a heart attack. In the moments before his death, Judge was repeatedly praying aloud, "Jesus, please end this right now! God, please end this!", according to Judge's biographer and New York Daily News columnist Michael Daly. . Daily News (New York). February 11, 2002. "Judge stood alone at a plate glass window overlooking the carnage and devastation. A fire department photographer heard him praying aloud, Jesus, please end this right now! God, please end this!
Shortly after his death, Judge's body was found and carried out of the North Tower by five people (Firefighters Christian Waugh and Zachary Vause, NYPD Lt. William Cosgrove, civilian John Maguire and FDNY EMT Kevin Allen) shortly before the building collapsed at 10:28a.m. This act was photographed by Reuters photographer Shannon Stapleton and became one of the most famous images of the attacks. It was also captured in the documentary film 9/11, shot by Jules and Gédéon Naudet. Philadelphia Weekly reported that the photograph is "considered an American Pietà."Prigge, Matt (May 3, 2006). "Upward Christian Soldier". Philadelphia Weekly. Judge's body was placed before the altar of St. Peter's Catholic Church before being taken by ambulance and fire department colleagues to Engine 1/Ladder 24, the fire station opposite the Franciscan Friary on W 31st Street in Manhattan. He was later taken from the fire station to the medical examiner.
Judge was designated as "Victim 0001" and thereby recognized as the first named victim of the attacks. Although thousands of others had been killed before him, with Daniel Lewin widely believed to have been the first chronological fatality, Judge was the first certified fatality because his body was the first to be recovered and taken to the medical examiner.
Judge's body was formally identified by NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, a longtime friend. The New York Medical Examiner found that Judge died of "blunt force trauma to the head".
Personal life Following his death, several of Judge's friends and associates revealed that he was gay. According to Fire Department Commissioner Thomas Von Essen: "I actually knew about his homosexuality when I was in the Uniformed Firefighters Association. I kept the secret, but then he told me when I became commissioner five years ago. He and I often laughed about it, because we knew how difficult it would have been for the other firemen to accept it as easily as I had. I just thought he was a phenomenal, warm, sincere man, and the fact that he was gay just had nothing to do with anything."
Judge developed a romantic relationship with a Filipino nurse named Al Alvarado in the last year of his life, which he documented in his diaries. The two often did not see each other for months because of Judge's work as a firefighter. In spite of this relationship, Judge was strict in keeping his vow of celibacy.
The revelations about his sexual orientation were not without controversy. Dennis Lynch, a lawyer, wrote an article about Judge that appeared on the website catholic.org. Lynch argued that Judge was not gay and that any attempt to define him as gay was due to "homosexual activists" who wanted to "attack the Catholic Church" and turn the priest into a "homosexual icon".Lynch, Dennis (June 26, 2002). "A September 11th Hijacking" . Catholic Online. Others refuted Lynch with evidence that Judge did identify himself as gay, both to others and in his personal journals.
Judge was a long-term member of Dignity, a Catholic LGBT activist organization that advocates for change in the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality."What is Dignity?" DignityUSA. On October 1, 1986, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the document On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,"Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" . DignityUSA. which declared homosexuality to be a "strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil". In response, many bishops, including Cardinal John O'Connor, banned Dignity from diocesan churches under their control. Judge then welcomed Dignity's AIDS ministry to the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, which is under the control of the Franciscan friars, thereby partially circumventing the cardinal's ban.
Judge disagreed with official Catholic teaching regarding homosexuality. He often asked, "Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?"
Legacy
On September 15, 2001, 3,000 people attended Judge's funeral Mass at St. Francis of Assisi Church, which was presided over by Cardinal Edward Egan, the Archbishop of New York. Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton also attended. President Clinton said that Judge's death was a "special loss. We should lift his life up as an example of what has to prevail. We have to be more like Father Mike than the people who killed him."Glenn Holsten (director). Saint of 9/11. Equality Forum. 2006.
Judge was buried in the friars' plot at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey. On October 11, 2001, Brendan Fay organized a "Month's Mind Memorial" in Good Shepherd Chapel, General Theological Seminary, New York. It was an evening of prayer, stories, traditional Irish music, and personal testimonials about Judge.
Some Catholics called for the canonization of Judge.Shane, Larry (December 25, 2002). "Sainthood call for chaplain rises from Sept.11 ashes" . The Seattle Times. The Orthodox-Catholic Church of America declared him a saint. Two people have said they experienced miraculous healings through prayers to Judge.Charisse, Jones (June 19, 2003). "The Making of Saint Mychal". USA Today.